55 - The Calendar Strategy: How to Automate Your Dining Discounts (And Never Pay Full Price Again)

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I recently did something a little crazy—but financially brilliant. During the holiday sales, I stocked up on restaurant gift cards. You know the ones: “Buy $100, Get $25 Free.” I bought them for my favorite local spots: the Irish pub around the corner, the pizza place we love on Fridays, and the nice steakhouse we save for special occasions. Mathematically, I was already winning. By getting $125 worth of food for $100, I had locked in an instant 20% discount on my future meals. But then I thought: How can I stretch this even further? The gift cards are great, but they are only one part of the equation. Most of these restaurants also offer weekly specials—Half-Price Burgers on Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, Kids Eat Free Wednesdays, or Happy Hour appetizers. If I used my discounted gift cards only on nights when the food was also discounted, I wouldn’t just be saving 20%. I’d be saving 50%, 60%, or even 70% off the regular menu price. The problem? I can never remember which restaurant has the ...
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36 - My Working Lunch: A lot of food for a really great deal!

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Today, I found a website called clipp.com - it's by the same people that send me a weekly "magazine" of local ads and coupons. I noticed that they only had a few restaurants near me, but one of those restaurants is within walking distance of my house and I had only been there a couple times, so I checked out the offer. Clipp.com was offering $30 of food for $15, but it was on sale for $10.50 today (which I realize is probably always available for that price!).

Since I was thinking I wanted to go out to lunch somewhere that has free wifi so I could write my next chapter of my upcoming book, I thought this place was as good a place as any, so I read the terms of the deal. It said that I could use the coupon any day Monday through Thursday (today is Wednesday), I had to dine in the restaurant (no takeout), and I had to spend $30 or more to get the deal. 

I jumped onto the restaurant's website and looked over their menus. They had a dinner menu, lunch menu, and specials menu. If I order everything before 2pm, I get everything for about 25% off the dinner price - not bad! Since $30 is way more food than I can eat by myself, I decided to order a personal pizza for myself and an iced tea, and I ordered a Chicken Vesuvio for my mom, who doesn't really dine out anymore, so I'm bringing it to her tomorrow for lunch. I only ate about half the pizza and ate one of the big pieces of chicken and a potato wedge, and I worked for two and a half hours before asking for boxes and taking it all home with me!

Here's how the costs broke down:
  • A $30 gift certificate cost me $10.50.
  • My bill came to $36.38, meaning that I still owed $6.38.
  • I tipped on the full cost of the lunch, so I gave $6.62 for the tip.
  • So I paid $17.12 total today.
This is going to sound like a math problem next... :) The personal pizza is normally $13.50, plus $1.50 per topping, but its lunch price is $10.50 with the same price for toppings. I added pepperoni and mushrooms, so my pizza cost $13.50.

The Chicken Vesuvio normally costs $19.00 but the lunch price is $17.00. The iced tea cost me $3.50. The restaurant charges a 3% service fee, plus there were several taxes applied. This all explains how the bill came to $36.38. (My waiter accidentally charged me $19 for the Chicken Vesuvio, but I didn't mind - I was getting a good enough deal.) So if you add in my tip of $6.62 to the $36.38, you get $43.00.

So I saved $25.88 today against the lunch prices, and $28.88 versus the dinner prices (although I should have saved another $2.00 on the Vesuvio). 

If $17.12 still sounds expensive for a lunch, I want you to know that I got four meals out of it! My mom will eat two meals of Vesuvio, and I still have half a pizza for tomorrow's lunch! :)

The moral of the story is that you can double up on some offers to really save money! (1) Buy a Groupon-like gift certificate, (2) eat during lunch time or order off the specials menu, and (3) order a refillable drink if you plan to stay for awhile.

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